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It is well known that a player in a non-cooperative game can benefit by publicly restricting his possible moves before play begins. We show that, more generally, a player may benefit by publicly committing to pay an external party an amount that is contingent on the game’s outcome. We explore what happens when external parties – who we call “game miners” – discover this fact and seek to profit from it by entering an outcome-contingent contract with the players. We analyze various structured bargaining games among such miner(s) and players that determine such an outcome-contingent contract before the start of the original game. These bargaining games include playing the players against one another as in the original game, as well as allowing the players to pay the miner(s) for exclusivity and first-mover advantage. We establish restrictions on the strategic settings in which a game miner can profit and bounds on the game miner’s profit. We also find that game miners can lead to both efficient and inefficient equilibria.

This study aimed to document the life experiences of child miners (CMs) engaged in small-scale gold mining system (SSGMS) in Paracale using qualitative and ethnographic approaches. Findings revealed that the SSGMS started even before the Spaniards came in 1572. Pagbibitâ (underground mining), and pagkocompressor (underwater mining) were identified as types of SSGMS (pagkakabod) with common organizational structure and CMs. Their differences were in the nature of work, roles, costs, income, equipment, and processes. Majority of the CMs are males, out-of-school youth, eldest children, and have worked from two months to nine years. Altruistic factors, a source of inspiración, motivated them to engage on mining. They view their families as poor, and mining as their primary means of livelihood and family tradición. Their life threatening or work-related risks and impoverished living conditions unquestionably infringe their children’s rights. Their aspiración include having permanent employment, better family life and community, finishing their studies, and sending their siblings to school. Perseverance and hard work are their means to realize them.

Their experiences of labour explotación and destitution are indeed social issues. Espousing social development and community organizing frameworks, good governance, holistic alternative livelihood and learning system may minimize their plight as child miners.

Idiosyncratic jobs occur when formal job duties match the abilities or interests of a specific person. New duties can accrue or be negotiated to match an existing employee or a potential hire. Idiosyncratic jobs can help organizations deal with changing contexts, and influence organizational goals and structure. They can affect job holders’ careers and organizational job structures. The evolutionary accumulation of idiosyncratic jobs can potentially generate unplanned organizational learning. Promising research frontiers include links to work on job crafting, I-Deals, negotiated joining, and ecologies of jobs. Deeper exploration of these domains can advance core theories of job design and organizational transformation and inform normative theory on organizational use of idiosyncratic jobs without falling into cronyism, inefficiency, or injustice.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how corporate social responsibility (CSR) in mining companies can contribute to the promotion of artisanal miners' human rights (HR) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

First, the paper designs a framework for a public policy on artisans, then it incorporates the possible contribution of companies to this policy drawing from the existent CSR literature. This framework is applied to relationships between mining companies and artisans in Katanga, a low‐conflict Province of the DRC. Finally, CSR guidelines for the promotion of artisans' HR are formulated. The theoretical framework articulates a public policy approach – which includes different actors – and a CSR approach – which develops the specific role of one such actor: the company – in the promotion of artisanal miners' HR. Data used in the empirical part are qualitative and include primary data gathered from visits to different mining companies operating in the Province and an interview with a local specialist in artisanal miners.

The first finding is that artisanal miners are a heterogeneous group, with multiple HR problems. Therefore, a public policy and a CSR policy to promote their HR are equally complex issues. However, local practices in the specific context of Katanga suggest two suitable CSR strategies for promoting artisans' HR: supporting new sustainable economic activities where artisans have been displaced by a company; and promoting the formalization of artisanal activity where companies are the artisans' clients.

This paper does not include interviews with mining company managers in Katanga in order to design very specific actions in each one of these CSR strategies. The research does not include field work in high‐conflict areas.

The heterogeneity and dynamism of artisanal miners' problems and the weakness of the Congolese State lead to a basic recommendation for responsible mining companies in low‐conflict areas: the implementation of dialogues with local communities and local governments in order to cover the needs of artisanal miners and discover innovation opportunities for the companies.

Although there is abundant literature on artisanal miners, the connection of artisanal miners and CSR has scarcely been developed. As far as the author knows, the illustration of this connection for the DRC has not been addressed. Additionally, the design of public policies for artisanal miners – part of the informal economy – and the contribution of companies to such policies can help address problems arising from other informal activities in Africa.

This paper aims to examine the interaction between formal and informal organisation of work inside the pit, with reference to the informal working or coping strategy of “making a plan” (planisa).

The research for this paper was ethnographic in nature and the participant observation was the main research technique used in the field.

The underground gold miners make a plan or engage in planisa to offset the production bottlenecks which affected their capacity to achieve their production targets and increase their bonus earnings. They “get on and get by” underground in order to cope with organisational constraints and management inefficiencies.

The paper highlights the limits of formal organisation of work and the significance of gold miners’ informal work strategy of making a plan (planisa) as an existing and alternative working practice that shapes their subjective orientation, agency and resilience to work structures and managerial strategies. Any strategy designed to improve the health, safety and productivity of underground miners must recognise, elaborate and systematically articulate the workplace culture of planisa as an existing work practice in the day‐to‐day running of the production process down the mine.

Under the de-capacity circumstances of coal production in China, the purpose of this paper is to examine the processes underlying the association between job insecurity (JI) and miners’ safety performance, proposing that resource consumption is a prominent theoretical explanation for this association. By developing a mediation model, the authors examined the mediating role of emotional exhaustion (EE) between JI and miners’ safety performance.

Through the time-lagged survey method, the authors collected 349 samples from three coal mines in Shanxi Lu’an Group, the hypotheses were tested through confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation model analysis and bootstrapping in AMOS software.

Results shed light on that JI negatively predicts the safety performance subfactors, including safety compliance (SC) and safety participation (SP). EE plays a partial mediating role between JI and safety performance. In particular, the finding indicated that JI exerts a more significant impact on SP than SC, revealing that JI produces a more significant adverse effect on miners’ conscious safety behaviors than skill-based safety behaviors.

This study contributes to display the influence path of JI as a stressor on miners’ safety performance in the coal mine rather than a stimulus. The mediation model results not only help us understand the association between JI and safety performance but also provide a feasible way to mitigate the negative effects of JI.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a unique sociotechnical system in its historical context to better understand and appreciate how a naturalistic organization enacted five key characteristics identified as critical to sociotechnical systems by theorists hundreds of years after the fact.

The paper presents an examination of the history and context of this unique method of organizing. The literature of sociotechnical systems was examined and five guiding principles are identified which provide the framework for this evaluation.

A sociotechnical system with naturalistic origins is identified, described, and discussed; providing fresh insights into the nature of sociotechnical systems and there enactment.

This is a unique case not previously identified in the literature of management and organizations. It should be of particular interest to scholars interested in sociotechnical systems.

With the rapid low-carbon transformation in China, the industrial approach and labor structure of mining enterprises are undergoing constant changes, leading to an increasing psychological dilemma faced by coal miners. This study aims to reveal the relationship and mechanism of factors influencing the psychological dilemma of miners, and to provide optimal intervention strategies for the safety and sustainable development of employees and enterprises.

To effectively address the complex issue of the psychological dilemma faced by miners, this study identifies and constructs five-dimensional elements, comprising 20 indicators, that influence psychological dilemmas. The relational mechanism of action of factors influencing psychological dilemma was then elucidated using an integration of interpretive structural modeling and cross-impact matrix multiplication.

Industry dilemma perception is a “direct” factor with dependent attributes. The perceptions of management response and relationship dilemmas are “root” factors with driving attributes. Change adaptation dilemma perception is a “susceptibility” factor with linkage attributes. Work dilemma perception is a “blunt” factor with both dependent and autonomous attributes.

The aforementioned findings offer a critical theoretical and practical foundation for developing systematic and cascading intervention strategies to address the psychological dilemma mining enterprises face, which contributes to advancing a high-quality coal industry and efficient energy development.

This chapter examines the interaction between formal and informal organisation of work in a deep-level mining workplace. In response to organisational constraints, underground mining teams make a plan (planisa) to offset production bottlenecks which affected the daily running of the production process at the rock-face down the mine. They ‘get on and get by’ inside the pit to cope with organisational dysfunctions and management inefficiencies. The chapter highlights the limits of formalised work methods and the significance of the frontline miners’ informal work practice of making a plan (planisa) as an existing and alternative working practice that shapes their subjective orientation, agency and resilience to deep-level mining work processes and managerial initiatives. While the informal work practice of planisa has pros and cons, any managerial strategy designed to improve organisational productivity, safety and teamwork must recognise and systematically articulate the frontline miners’ work culture of planisa. This is especially important if we are to fully understand the limits of contemporary organisational strategies and workers’ orientations towards modernised work processes and managerial practices.

Concerns over health and safety are important reasons for leaving the mining industry. Yet pull factors such as better hours and shifts may be even more important. A study of 1,384 US male coal miners from 1977 to 1982 is reported. In 1977, 86 left mining and changed jobs by 1982 to other coal mining jobs or jobs outside the industry. Neither push nor pull factors were more important for within‐industry as compared to inter‐industry job changing. Further work is needed to understand the inter‐relations between health, safety and labour force mobility. More emphasis on health as a predictor of intermediate social outcomes is needed.